Yamaha Sign Miguel Oliveira as Factory MotoGP Rider
Yamaha press releases on our motor sports racing activities
September 6, 2024
September 6, 2024—Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. is delighted to announce the signing of Miguel Oliveira. The Portuguese MotoGP star will be riding for the Prima Pramac Yamaha Factory Team for the 2025 and 2026 MotoGP season.
Oliveira is in his sixth year in the MotoGP class and his fourteenth year in the paddock. The vastly experienced 29-year-old has many premier-class and lower-class achievements to his name, including 17 race wins (5x MotoGP, 6x Moto2, 6x Moto3) and 41 podiums (7x MotoGP, 21x Moto2, 13x Moto3) and a MotoGP Sprint podium at the Sachsenring this year.
For 2025-26, Yamaha as well as MotoGP fans can look forward to Oliveira's run on a, to him, new bike: the Factory Yamaha YZR-M1. Moreover, the number-88 rider will enjoy the full support of Yamaha.
Lin Jarvis - Managing Director, Yamaha Motor Racing
“We are pleased to announce that a professional and experienced rider like Miguel Oliveira is joining the Yamaha line-up for 2025-26, and we bid him a warm welcome to the Yamaha MotoGP Project.
Miguel is a rider who has the technical know-how, experience, speed, and precision needed to improve the performance of the Yamaha YZR-M1. We are really looking forward to working with him as a key member of the Yamaha MotoGP project, and he can count on our full support.”
Miguel Oliveira
“It's a great privilege for me to represent such an iconic brand in our sport as Yamaha. Through my years of progression and arriving in MotoGP, I've always looked upon the blue bikes with great enthusiasm.
It's now a reality, and I want to thank Yamaha Motor Company for its commitment to me in such an important transition phase of the project. Mr. Lin Jarvis was a key figure in starting discussions and making this happen. I believe I can be useful in this transition period of bringing the bike back to the top.
I want to thank Mr. Campinoti, Gino Borsoi, and all the Pramac staff for embarking on this journey together. I can't be happier and more excited to get this new chapter started.”
NOTES
| Date of birth | 04-01-1995 |
|---|---|
| Place of birth | Pragal, Almada, Portugal |
| Nationality | Portuguese |
| Height | 170cm |
| Weight | 64kg |
| Grand Prix Debut | 2011 Qatar GP (125cc) |
| MotoGP Debut | 2019 Qatar GP |
| First GP Win | 2015 Italian GP (Moto3) |
| First Premier Class Win | 2020 Styrian GP |
| GP Wins | 17 (5x MotoGP, 6x Moto2, 6x Moto3) |
| GP Podiums | 41 (7x MotoGP, 21x Moto2, 13x Moto3) |
| Sprint Podiums | 1 (2024 German GP) |
| Poles | 5 (1x MotoGP, 2x Moto2, 2x Moto3) |
| 2024 | MotoGP World Championship (13th – 60 points) [After the Aragón GP] |
|---|---|
| 2023 | MotoGP World Championship (16th – 76 points) |
| 2022 | MotoGP World Championship (10th – 149 points) |
| 2021 | MotoGP World Championship (14th – 94 points) |
| 2020 | MotoGP World Championship (9th – 125 points) |
| 2019 | MotoGP World Championship (17th – 33 points) |
| 2018 | Moto2 World Championship (2nd– 297 points) |
| 2017 | Moto2 World Championship (3rd– 241 points) |
| 2016 | Moto2 World Championship (21st – 36 points) |
| 2015 | Moto3 World Championship (2nd – 254 points) |
| 2014 | Moto3 World Championship (10th – 110 points) |
| 2013 | Moto3 World Championship (6th – 150 points) |
| 2012 | Moto3 World Championship (8th – 114 points) |
| 2011 | 125cc World Championship (14th – 44 points) |
Miguel Oliveira Rider Biography
Miguel Oliveira's first big successes came in 2005 and 2006 when he won the Portuguese MiniGP championship. In 2009 he was third in the FIM CEV Repsol championship, and in 2010 he battled Maverick Viñales to the final race of the season for the title - eventually finishing runner-up by just two points prior to his World Championship debut in 2011.
Oliveira raced full time in 2012 with the Estrella Galicia 0,0 team and took two podiums, before he joined Mahindra Racing in 2013 and made headlines by grabbing the Indian manufacturer's first ever podium in Malaysia. In 2014, he remained on the Mahindra, taking another podium at Assen before being recruited by Red Bull KTM Ajo for 2015.
The Moto3 season got off to a difficult start for the Portuguese rider, but he won in both Mugello and Assen before breaking his wrist in Germany. All hope looked lost as Danny Kent left the British GP with a 110-point lead over the KTM rider, but an incredible comeback saw Oliveira take four wins and two second places in the final six races and challenge Kent down to the final round, coming runner-up.
For 2016, he and Kent joined forces in the Moto2 World Championship with Leopard Racing, and after recovering from injury at the end of the year, the Portuguese rider returned to the Ajo motorsport camp for 2017, onboard the new KTM chassis in Moto2 with Red Bull KTM Ajo. Taking their first win, challenging at the front, and coming third overall, Oliveira's season was a stunner – and he remained a threat in 2018. Eventually taking the runner-up spot in the title fight, it was nevertheless an impressive season, and it earned the Portuguese a spot in MotoGP with Red Bull KTM Tech 3 for 2019.
Regular point-scoring finishes saw Oliveira impress in his maiden premier class season, P8 in Austria was his best result. A huge Phillip Island crash, after already suffering an injury at Silverstone, saw Oliveira have to sit out the final three races and preseason testing at the end of 2019.
Staying with Red Bull KTM Tech 3 for 2020, Oliveira became the second KTM rider to claim victory in the premier class. Following a stunning last lap in the Styrian GP, Oliveira stole ahead in the final corner to claim the win. The MotoGP circus also returned to his home country for the Portuguese GP, and Oliveira ensured it was a dream weekend as he clinched victory in the season finale.
2021 saw him partner Brad Binder in the factory colours, but injury saw Oliveira have a rollercoaster season. Three podiums, including victory in Barcelona, were the highlights.
In 2022, Oliveira struggled in dry conditions to challenge at the sharp end, but he was by far and away the rain master as the Portuguese star romped to his fourth and fifth premier class win in the torrential rains of Indonesia and Thailand.
After six seasons in orange, Oliveira moved to the RNF Aprilia squad for 2023. An opening-round injury on home soil and another one in Jerez ruined the first half of the season for the luckless Portuguese rider. A P5 at Silverstone was the highlight, as Oliveira's season ended with another injury picked up in Qatar.
In 2024, the number 88 is riding for the Trackhouse Racing Aprilia squad. His highest score of the first half of the season was second place at the German GP Sprint.
Oliveira decided he wanted a change of pace for 2025-26, and a project where he could use his experience in bike development, making him the ideal man to join Prima Pramac Racing and the Yamaha line-up.
